Hardwick—It’s a “Cornish Homecoming” art exhibition at the Compost Exhibition Space, Sept. 19 -Oct. 11. The names, however, that would strike the collective memory of this area of the Northeast Kingdom from a few decades back would be Smith, Ferguson and Ashley. An opening reception with the artists will take place on Saturday, Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. at the Exhibition Space on 15 North Main in Hardwick.

They are remembered for the enduring, regular and often treasured kinds of village-life images: Christine Ferguson for her garden and remarkable strength of character; Marion Smith for her teaching – all the way back to the one-room schoolhouse on the Greensboro hill that she traveled to on cold winter mornings via horse-drawn sled; her sister, Irene, operated Ashley’s Drugstore on Main Street. It had an old- fashioned soda fountain, “Keepsake” diamonds, roasted peanuts, comic books, medicines and plenty of “downstreet news.” Marion’s husband George was a policeman-turned-farmer, and provided some of the most familiar images of all: haying, horses and a barn watched over by a beagle named Smoky Joe, Christmas trees, sugaring, fresh greens and berries.

The road up the hill from the turn off Route 14 is called “Smith Farm Road” even though the land has long since changed hands. Ashley’s Cut-Rate is now the Alternative Learning Center and the Cornishes are tending their grand- mother’s garden but the one name that all of these lead back to is the same that is on the road sign that leads to Mackville Pond—and that name is Carey.

The Carey family lived on that road until the flood of 1927 washed the house away. They later held forth on Alpine Heights. The Cornish artists’ great-grandfather was a stone cutter and their great grandmother was honored by President Wilson as an 5-Star Mother in WorldWar I. Miraculously, all five of her sons came home and the youngest, Bernard Carey, married Christine in the early 1920s. Their second child, Eleanor, was born in Montpelier, and is the mother of the artists that have collected various pieces of their work and are exhibiting them for the month in honor of the relationship of art, memory and the directions they’ve traveled.

They were raised in Missouri but often journeyed back to Vermont in the summer. The oldest. Daryl Cornish, even spent one summer haying with his Uncle George and all of them remember countless joyful hours at Aunt Irene’s camp “up to Parker Pond.” All of the Cornishes feel that their childhood trips to this village in New England helped foster their imaginations and creative sensibilities.

“It was magical summer camps and ice-cold lakes, rowboats and card games, winding roads with signs in French, no television, and Irish aunts that told stories.”

The exhibit features the work of Daryl Cornish, S.J., a Jesuit priest living and working at St. Louis University. As the oldest of the six he helped nourish and develop the creativity of his younger siblings. In that sense he had always been a spiritual director of sorts. His work being shown ranges from his auto- biographical drawings done while completing Divinity studies in Berkeley, Calif, to the meditations on the Psalms that he now paints using a mouthstick.

He lost the use of his hands to Multiple Sclerosis but will tell you how that adjustment has sharpened his artistic vision. His works reflect his feelings and interpretations of sacred texts and were shown in Chicago’s Judy A. Saslow Gallery last June. An exhibition in. New York is being discussed for the near future.

Presenting a range of images that reflect the journeys of these artists from the Southwest to Botswana, Africa and to lyrical imaginary locations. The youngest sister, Shari Cornish, works in surface design and painted textiles. Susan Cornish is a painter currently working in Santa Fe, N.M. Judith Cornish is a printmaker living and working in Japan. Jim Cornish, visually handicapped at birth, works in ceramic and clay sculpture, and Diane Cornish is in the per- forming arts. She is currently working on opera and performance research in Tokyo and is showing works from a recent photo exhibition.

Times Argus – A Cornish Homecoming, 1998